The Hunt for the Master

Our intrepid heroes, facing down four cave entrances, cautiously make their way into the first. After a long sloping hallway, they find themselves in an enormous chamber. A giant globe rests in the middle of the room, and four hallways branched off. Around the globe were 4 circular spots on the ground. The party attempted to unlock the secret of those spots, to no avail. SO they headed down one of the hallways.

The hallway went straight, but every so often burrow holes appeared. Large burrow holes. Ants. Our heroes made their way into a large chamber, where they were beset upon by a half dozen ants, including the queen. They fought valiantly, and soon emerged victorious. They found a crank and turned it. Upon returning to the main chamber, they discovered that the circular spots were actually pillars, and the crank had lifted one out to rest against the globe.

The party, having earned the trust (or at least respect) of the hippogriff, talk to Old Man Higgins about keeping her around in case these goblins decide to start raiding the village. Gramulon offers to buy the Bag of Holding off of him, and they set out towards the goblins.

Taking the road north from Gorlak's hideout, they soon converge with the Master's path of destruction. Unfortunately, that path crossed a watchtower. Dead goblins were strewn about. There was no evidence that they injured the Master at all. Shortly after they arrived, a scouting party showed up. Our heroes explained that they were not responsible, and were believed. It seems that the Master had recently passed by a fort. A mention of Gorlak caused weapons to be raised, until the scout leader Sarlek pulled Hayth and Gramulon aside. He explained that Gorlak does not have many friends, and mentioning him could be costly. After a brief stop at the fort, the party is directed to the city of Ghezzi, just in time for the New Moon Celebration.

The first new moon of the year is a day of peace, with goblins all over the kingdom laying down arms to celebrate their god Maglubiyet. The priest of every city reads omens for the new year. The party gets to Ghezzi just in time to witness the omen reading. But things go awry, as the slaughtered cow refuses to die, and just. Keeps. Bleeding. The priest tries to immolate the offering, only to find that the fire flares up into 4 Lesser Fire Elementals. After dispatching the fiends, they talk to the priest and surmise that this is a very very bad omen. Well, the Master's path would put him on a collision course with the capitol city of Kilzor. So Ilivarra turned into a bird and flew with great speed to Kilzor to see what she could see. She saw a city in flames, and many goblins around a mortally wounded crowned goblin, seemingly of great import. Ilivarra turns back into her Drow form, gives the goblin her healing potions, and flies back to Ghezzi to give report.

She meets the party halfway, explaining the situation. Arriving in Kilzor, the party is directed to see King Jarek. He is the mortally wounded goblin Ilivarra helped, and he remembers her. They talk some about what happened as his son Gurthak shows up. Jarek, nearing death, instructs Gurthak about his upcoming rule, and Gurthak beheads him, in true goblin fashion. Gurthak, now king, tells the party that the Master was headed directly for the Haunted Place. Talking to the High Priest of Maglubiyet, the party learns that the Haunted Place is a great gate in a cliff, much much older than the goblins. Neither goblins or their mortal enemies the kobolds will tread there. So the party makes haste.

They come to the Haunted Place to find a quiet clearing at the base of a great cliff. North and to both sides, mountains range. An enormous gate is built into the cliff face, four great bars laid across it. On either side are two open cave mouths. In the middle of the clearing is a ruined pedestal with strange glyphs etched into it. When translated, it reads:

Baron Jorland meets with the party, giving them supplies and a couple of magical items that might help them. Official introductions are made all around, and the party prepares to head out. Baron Jorland is asked if there are any other magical items they might be able to acquire, and he points them in the direction of Old Man Higgins, who lives on a farm east of town. So the party takes a detour and pays him a visit. Old Man Higgins has a Bag of Holding, but he also has a problem he'd like us to handle for him. Old Man Higgins is one of the main suppliers of beef to the town, but it seems that a hippogriff has been attacking his cattle. He says that if they can solve his hippogriff problem, he'll gladly give them the Bag of Holding. He sends them out into his easternmost pasture, where most of the attacks have happened.

The party finds signs of attack everywhere, blood splatters and such. On the other side of the barbed wire fence marking the edge of his property is a small thicket. A creek burbles on between it and the fence. As the party approaches, a group of rats emerge from the creekbed and attack them. The party kills all the rats and look up to discover that the hippogriff has come out to investigate all the noise. Iliyana gives a dead rat to the hippogriff and begins to build a rapport with the creature. Things seem to be going well until Corrin takes it upon himself to sneak into the thicket to see what it holds. It happens to hold a nest with eggs in it!

After discussing the events with Baron Jarland and getting up to speed, the party is hired to follow the Master and ascertain his intentions. They are warned that if people go too far into the forest they do not return. In fact, a woodsman named Bobert Eolun is overdue to return home, having been missing for two days now. So the party pays a visit to Bobert's wife, to get a feel for the man, and they head off into the uninviting wood.

They follow the main forest road, which includes the path that the Master laid until they came across the remnants of a scuffle buried under the charred debris from the Master's passage. Clearly something happened a day or so before the Master passed through. After some investigation, it is clear that our woodsman was on the losing end of this battle, and that the victors were Goblins. The woodsman was dragged deeper into the forest, so the party follows the trail. They come to a cave, with a road leading north away from it. Chittering voices are coming from up the road, so the party dips into the cave. Seems that they've stumbled across some sort of Goblin hideout. They cut their way deep into the bowels of the cave, creatively abusing Goblin bodies to disable traps along the way. After looting some rubies from a fallen statue and disabling a bolt thrower, the party finds themselves in the throne room of the cave, staring down the leader of this particular band of Goblins. Thanks to (Mason)'s diplomacy and Ilivarra's "roach" in the hole, bloodshed was avoided. The Gobln Underboss, named Gorlak, tells the party that they have been capturing intruders into the Goblin realm. They do not want war with New Kartan, though they will attack if they keep getting provoked. They have their own problems to deal with. The Goblin King's brother has killed the King and usurped the throne. Gorlak sends the party out to find the Usurper and kill him, bringing the head back with them. He also tasks the party with sending the leader of New Kartan to him to broker a peace. Gorlak releases the barely alive Bobert into the party's custody and sends them on their way.

Just outside the treeline, within sight of the village the party is attacked by wolves. They swiftly defeat them. Those wolves had it coming. After returning Bobert to his wife, they commune with Baron Jarland. He agrees to visit the Goblin cave, and advises the party that they will be well outfitted for their expedition into the Goblin lands.

The party relaxes in a shabby tavern in a shabby town at the very edge of civilization. They hear a commotion and rush to investigate. Outside the tavern they spy a trail of devastation leading away from the docks, and a lone figure moving off into the distance. There is a commotion at the docks, where a Varangian ship is docked. The party decides to split up and check things out.

Gramulon Blackwulf and (Deric) head to the docks and are quickly beset by the Varangian soldiers standing there. Though they fought admirably, and killed a significant number of soldiers, they were overwhelmed and given life threatening injuries.

(Mason) and Ilivarra hurry off to the figure. Ilivarra was able to see enough of the figure to think it might be a fellow Drow, but that turns out to not be the case. She turned into an owl and lands on a tree branch near to the figure. (Mason) puts on his best drunken act and saunters up to engage the figure. He manages to get the figure to stop moving and talk long enough to get a feel for him, but palpable waves of fear emanate from him and they two cannot stand it for long, so they make their escape and head back to the docks.

At the docks they see the Varangian Captain and his surviving soldiers standing over the possibly lifeless corpses of Gramulon and (Deric). Everyone in the crowd looks sheepish and scared except for one man, so (Mason) and Ilivarra ask him what happened. He introduces himself as Baron Daro Jarland, the mayor of the town, and explains that the Captain exclaimed that everyone here was to bend knee to Varangia or die. When asked about the figure, he tells them that it is supposedly the Master of the Panopticon. (Mason) and Ilivarra walk up to the Captain to try bargaining for their party's lives.

(Mason) bluffs the Captain, saying he is a "powerful wizard" and "turns" Ilivarra into a boar. This is enough to scare the soldiers away, but the Captain holds fast. Weakened as he was by (Brandon) and (Deric) though, he did not last long. After healing the others, the whole party climbed aboard the ship, dragging the Captain's lifeless body with them.

They all take turns beating upon the Captain's body, and this is enough to enrage the remaining soldiers into attacking. All but one are killed off, and the party searches the ship. Below deck they come across a terrified cabin boy, whom (Mason) befriends. They also come across a chest containing goodies. They take the captured soldier and the cabin boy and deliver them both to the Baron. They then head to the tavern to rest up for the night.

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.